Flow control actuators are utilized in various applications to augment or otherwise manipulate a fluid flow. One application in which flow control actuators are commonly utilized is in the aircraft industry, specifically to control various airflow fields around an aircraft in flight. A synthetic jet actuator is a type of flow control actuator that utilizes a diaphragm to push and pull an air mass within a cavity of the actuator. Doing so creates a synthetic jet of air through an orifice in the actuator to react with and modify an external airflow. The jet of air is “synthetic” because there is a zero-net mass flux through the actuator. Another type of flow control actuator includes a powered resonance tube (PRT). A PRT utilizes an external air source to force air within the actuator cavity to create the actuating flow, which subsequently interacts with and modifies the external airflow. A detonation driven actuator utilizes the combustion of a fuel injected into a combustion chamber to create combustion products that are exhausted into an external airflow in an effort to manipulate the airflow.
With each type of conventional flow control actuator, the effectiveness of the actuator typically decreases as the external flow to be manipulated increases in speed. With high-speed airflows, the jet velocities and associated actuator cavity pressures required to affect the high-speed airflow in a desired manner are quite large. This commonly requires external sources of fuel or high-pressure air to augment the air or other fluid within the actuator. The carriage of supplemental tanks or fuel sources increases the cost, footprint, and weight of the flow control actuator system, which is undesirable in an aircraft or other vehicle having space and weight limitations, as well as budgetary constraints.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.